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Assault Class
The Assault Class is one of the Soldier Classes in the game XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The primary role of the Assault Class is aggressive reconnaissance, flanking, and drawing enemy fire. XCOM Database As the first and last units on the ground, these troops are initially equipped with XCOM's proprietary combat shotgun. However they may still deploy with the assault rifle. Weapons Assault Class soldiers can be equipped with rifles, sidearms, and it is the only class that can equip shotguns. Abilities When a soldier is promoted, certain ranks gives the player the option to choose 1 from the 2 available abilities to give to their soldier. Builds & Tactics Whether you are building a tanky Assault (left side promotions) or an aggressive one (right side promotions), there are a couple times you might want to consider crossing the isle: Rapid Fire and Lightning reflexes. Rapid Fire is perhaps the best double shot ability in game, giving you an innate +15 aim and allowing you to move or run and gun and then take 2 shots. Lightning Reflexes allows you to negate an overwatch and run even when suppressed without worry of reactive fire. It's not always clear if an enemy is on overwatch in the fog of war, and even later on in game you'll get good mileage out of this ability. But mostly, Lightning Reflexes dominates council missions, and the early ones often are the most challenging missions of a whole xcom playthrough. Thin man drops can be brutal if you can't reposition your squad, and your support won't have suppression yet. Tactical Sense vs Aggression * Tactical Sense allows you to end a turn in partial cover, and still have similar cover quality to the rest of your squad, making risky run-and-guns survivable, creating more direct attack paths to the enemy in relative safety. It helps especially when waking extra alien groups and when being flanked. You also gain outstanding "tanking" ability, ideally when hunkering down behind indestructible full cover, where even thin men on high ground cannot hit you and must advance to flank. * Tactical Sense has no effect against melee enemies such as Chryssalids and Berserkers. * When a Tactical Sense assault is behind full cover, aliens will often ignore the Assault and choose to shoot at another soldier. This can negate the advantage of a Tactical Sense entirely if you are not careful to use your defensive advantage to lure the aliens into a killzone, because what good is a tank if no one targets him? For this reason, assaults pair extremely well with squadsight snipers as they can be so far away that they can't be targetted. * Aggression's bonus critical chance is unreliable but potentially extremely valuable against melee opponents, where it is often one turn to shoot, kill-or-be-killed. It also helps to overcome critical chance reduction on enemies with a "Hardened" property, such as Sectopods, Ethereals, and Cyberdiscs. * When flanking the enemy, the combination of +50% critical chance from flanking and a shotgun's 20% baseline critical chance with a +30% bonus from Aggression with three aliens in view results in 100% crit, making some would-be risky situations an assured win. * That said, run-and-guns with more than one alien in sight can be hazardous, and generally it is advisable to perform the Run & Gun action as one of the last actions taken in the XCOM turn, due to the possibility of shots missing their targets. Due to this, Aggression rarely stacks to 30% unless you are holding back on actions with rockets, sniper shots, or other guaranteed kills. * Aggression gives you more damage, valuable in the later stages of the game where you can't really afford to let most aliens ever take a turn, as they have grenades, psionics, massive damage, and there are dozens of them. Build ideas: # Balanced Build - Tactical Sense, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Fire, Close Combat Specialist, Resiliance. # Shotgun Assault - Aggression, Close and Personal, Rapid Fire, Close Combat Specialist, Killer Instinct. # Rifle Assault - Aggression, Lightning Reflexes, Rapid Fire, Bring 'Em On, Resiliance. # All-out endgame Shotgun with Midgame Fire support (All right side abilities). Light Plasma has a high hit rate, but low damage, so it is ideal for use with Bring 'Em On. 7 dmg crit -> up to 12 dmg crits, a massive boost! Enough stopping power with flanking crits midgame to still pass in CQC. After researching Light Plasma Rifle, there will be a timing window where you'll have a bunch of those lying around but would need to manufacture scatter lasers with alloys, and alloy cannons are not yet available. Use heavies to break cover and wipe out groups with a hail of accurate, medium damage gunfire from long range without having to flank and potentially alert extra groups. Endgame this is the most damaging alloy cannon assault build possible. Category:Soldier Classes